01.13.07 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

1. Crescent Kicks

Reviewed Other Items:

1. Warm-Ups
2. Purple Belt Kicking Drill
3. Freestyle Kicking Drill
4. Master Form
5. Techniques

.

Warm-ups
Solid warm-ups today with lots of leg stretching – for good reason.

.

Kicking Drills
Following our basic stretches, we did some foot maneuvers to get the blood flowing and then we lined up along one side of the mat and went back and forth across the mat doing the Purple belt kicking drill. The first time up and back was a little rusty for me but after that I was okay. After several trips, Sifu had us pair up and we continued the Purple belt kicking drill with a partner, the partner backing up with the kicks so as to provide a frame of reference for the kicks in the drill. I was paired up with Walt for this exercise and was constantly adjusting range to accommodate his long legs!

After several minutes of the Purple belt kicking drill, Sifu had us continue the same exercise but instead of using a pre-determined set of moves, he wanted us to just use freestyle kicks, adjusting to our partner as they retreated. Again, we weren’t making contact with the kicks but rather just using our training partner as a frame of reference for targeting, etc. We probably threw 150 kicks or more during the course of the kicking drills.

.

Crescent Kicks
Sifu had us line up and formally taught us the inside and outside crescent kick today. This is something I have done in Taekwondo, and Jeff has been using these pretty effectively for sparring, but we haven’t covered them in class before (so far as I know). We started out with the inside crescent. This kick uses a straight leg rotating in a circular movement with the inside edge of the foot used as the striking surface. Describing a right inside crescent kick from a neutral bow, I move the right leg across my center with the foot traveling in a continuous arc, first heading to the outside left of my circle of protection, continuing on to the apex of the circle and back down again to the mat into a neutral bow position. Optimally, I have seen this strike used as a kick to the head, but Sifu also described this as a clearing kick able to remove an attacker’s defenses allowing you to move in and take care of business.

There are several things that are important about the crescent kick. The circular motion is critical. It works with the rotation in your hips/core to create torque and power for the kick. It is also important to keep the foot fully flexed and rigid as this is your weapon being delivered by the kick. Failure to keep the foot flexed will diminish the effectiveness of the kick and could actually cause you injury depending on what you strike. One of the primary differences between the crescent kick and many of the kicks in Kenpo is the fact that the knee is locked with the leg straight.

After we practiced the inside crescent, we switched up to the outside crescent kick. This is almost identical with just a couple of minor differences. One difference is obvious – you are now kicking in the opposite direction of circular movement. The other is the striking surface of the weapon, the foot. With an outside crescent kick, you are kicking with the outside of the foot. Again, it is critical that the foot is fully flexed for this. We practiced this for several minutes before we took a quick water break and moved on to the next item of the day.

.

Master Form
Sifu had Marty working with the Blue belts today on their techniques and the Master form while he took some time to do the same with me. He started by having me do the Master form from the beginning – salutes and all. Right off the bat, he mentioned that when I roll into the second hand gesture in the salute, I had a sort of double claw instead of the claw and the fist. Oops. Another item that he mentioned to me later that was in the same vain was that when I close, the right foot comes to the left. I had been doing it the other way around and realized that I do the opposite for Taekwondo. Oops again.

The critiques Sifu gave for my portion of the Master form were mostly accuracy. Starting with Beheading the Dragon, my waiter check tends to trail on around my shoulder instead of maintaining it in front of me. The next item of note was on Escaping Ram, where he stated I am not fully extending my rear kick. He went onto surmise that this is probably from working with a live body as we don’t try to kick through our training partners. However, it is something that we should be doing when practicing in the air.

The next item of note was in Thrusting Release, as I was not properly executing the thrust kick. From his description, I am doing a sort of quasi snap kick with an extension at the end. The knee is coming up but there are two distinct movements between the rise of the knee and the extension of the kick. They should be married together with the power of the kick coming from the movement of the hips. He worked with me on this with one of the B.O.B.s and I understand what he is talking about. After a couple more times, he said the kick looked better.

Retuning Serpent was pretty good but he reminded me to make sure I get good rotational torque on the lunge punch. I have a tendency to punch flat because my hand is facing palm in instead of palm up.

When transitioning to Deflecting Thunder, I have the tendency to just sort of sweep the blocking arm in a circular motion into a check instead of doing a close fisted block. There should be a clear block there and then move into the hand check.

And finally, on Thunder and Lighting, my block was a little low. I was doing the movement of an outward block but it was lower than it should be. Get the block up to the correct location and remember the basic “gable” theory of the blocks. We went through the Master form several times before we moved on to the Purple belt techniques.

.

Purple Belt Techniques
We started from the beginning and went through each technique in detail. Stopping the Storm is the first one we did and I had some questions for Sifu. I felt I was having problems getting the correct range when working with a person. He basically showed me that my range was okay, it was the body reaction that was jamming me up. That first punch is going to really bend them back, which provides the room I need to do the rest of the technique. Also, Sifu noticed that I am bringing my fist upwards and then in for the stop punch. This is a point of origin punch all the way from a natural position. If the motion begins by turning the palm up during this path of travel, you can get the torque you want at the delivery of the punch. The only other thing that he mentioned was to be sure to anchor the left hand back after the initial block/parry/grab.

As we did Hidden Wing, Sifu made a correction on target acquisition that solved another problem that I was having – range for my kick. I was taking my adjustment step out at an angle away from the attack as opposed to stepping directly forward. Making this small change cleared up all of the problems I was having.

There is a lot to think about in Circling Serpent. First is the check in the beginning. It is a pinning check at the elbow; there is no downward pressure or movement. While doing this in the air, it seems that I was pushing down. The next point of focus is the grab at the shoulder. When this happens, it is vital that my elbow is anchored at my side, outside of his arm, providing a check for that arm. It also puts him in position for the upcoming leg buckle/sweep. Finally, when doing the leg buckle/sweep, step straight back into a firm rear bow while bringing the right hand from the right shoulder down to the left hip. This creates the correct path of motion for the bad guy to travel in order to plant him on the point of your knee.

I was having some issues with Hooking Thunder. The hooking part was fine but for some reason I keep getting the left hand check too high, often right in my own face. It should be centered and vertical. The other thing I was doing had to do with the foot placement as I step back into a cat stance; my rear foot is more at a 45 degree angle as opposed to the 90 degrees it should be. This is upsetting my balance a bit and causing some problems.

Captured Wing was another one that has a lot of stuff going on. First of all, when practicing in the air, I was picturing my would-be assailant too far to my left. He will likely be more directly behind me. Correcting this initial posture actually corrected some other problems I was having further on down the line. I was having an issue getting rotated around enough to get a good arm break. I had 180 turn in my head but was actually having to travel further than that. By changing the initiation point of the technique, everything came into place where it needed to be. Regarding the arm break, I seem to want to come around with a more circular motion with the left arm. Instead, I need to bring the arm in and shoot a good solid ‘block’ for the break. Finally, there should be a circular motion with the right arm as it begins it’s decent for the vertical elbow to the spine. I tend to want to go up and then drive downward. Sifu says to utilize a circular motion with the right hand and follow the orbit down for the elbow strike. In doing it that way a couple of times, it feels much tighter and compact as opposed to that vertical rise.

We discussed some of the finer points of the throw in Clapping Tiger. For the most part, I’m doing the technique properly but there were some things about the throw itself that we discussed like the importance of the ‘butt bunk’ and getting below the attacker’s center. Sifu said there is a very site on the internet at judoinfo.com. This site is perhaps one of the most comprehensive sites on the topic of Judo available on the internet today. On the site is information for a throw called Seoi-nage which is in essence the throw that Sifu has us doing for Clapping Tiger. We discussed that, in fact, the I.K.C.A. Purple Belt videos show a side throw and even that is a variation on the Seoi-nage throw but the version we do is more true to the Judo move. Sifu briefly discussed with me the starting position for Judo players and how the throw is done from that position. The overhead throw seems to be more effective than the side throw. It can be more disorienting and you can certainly do more damage. Sifu explained that at the end of the throw, you can actually ‘shorten the circle’ by pulling in on the arm, thus increasing the force of impact upon landing.

We sort of ran out of time today and didn’t get to Raking Hammer. I know from practicing it that I need to work on dropping into place with the initial block. Also, I’m dropping into a horse stance – not a neutral bow or a lunge stance. I have been working with these and I’m getting better with them but I’m still fighting bad habits.

One final thought regarding today’s session with the techniques. Sifu says I am starting to drop my head again when I’m moving through the techniques and the Master form. I’ll try to be alert to this as I practice.